Deeper into the woods
by RoyalShoebox
Summary: Bigby tries to solve the case of the mysterious beheaded girl with Snow being right behind him. While working on the case with her together, his feelings for her seem to drift somewhere he thought he could keep them away. BigbyxSnow. T for now, may change as the story progresses. Help me be a better writer and say what you think!
1. Midnight murder

**A/N** Hey guys, this is my first written story ever so please be mild! English is also not my motherlanguage so be warned about the dissuse of many grand words and please forgive any (grammatical) mistakes. I wanted to write something about the wolf among us since i think it's an amazing game, and i really love the relationship between Bigby and Snow. I'm following the original storyline while mainly focussing on Bigby and Snow, maybe alterring snippets of the story here and there, nothing major. If you have suggestions, improvements, comments, anything, please say so, I really want to improve my writing. Thank you very much for chosing my story, and hope that you'll enjoy it. The first chapter will stick very very close to the original story so be warned haha

- Chapter 1 -

"Bigby!" A shout. Blood shot eyes fluttered open at the sudden awakening. His muscles felt stiff and he wanted to close his eyes again to just drift off for a couple of hours more. Long nights of paperwork and microwaved Chinese food didn't do his body any good, he noticed.

After the disorientation left Bigby was able to make out a figure in front of the chair that he was sitting in. Since when did I have a roommate? he mused. At last he could recognize the face of a distressed Snow , staring at him with a hint of thunder in her eyes.

"Bigby get up, there is no time to waste" she prodded him with her elegant hand once more.

Snow spoke in a nervous tone. He could smell the panic from a mile away, even though she was trying to compose her face bit by bit. Her eyes shot through the room as if she wanted to remember everything like a photograph, her hands were keeping each other busy as if they had lives of their own. This was some serious shit, Bigby noticed it in the air. He got up from his old, dusty chair, not as quickly as Snow wanted though.

He looked the slightly shorter woman in the eyes with a questioning look. "

what's the matter Snow? What brings you here at this time of the night?" he asked.

Waking him up after he only had a couple of hours of sleep would have to be for something important. Snow looked at him "We need to go downstairs, something terrible has happened".

Bigby raised an eyebrow at Snow and wanted to ask questions, but Snow was quicker to catch up with his groggy brain right now. "No time for explaining now Bigby" she said "we need to go downstairs right now, before the people see." Bigby decided he didn't want to send her over the edge even more than she already was, so he wisely decided to keep his mouth shut.

Snow's heels already started clicking on the floor of his tiny apartment and he followed soon after. They passed several doors in the narrow hallways before they encountered a man Bigby only knew by face. Snow quickly exchanged an awkward greeting with him and continued on her way with Bigby in rearview.

Her fast, agitated paces made his mind drift to other places. How did she even get in? he wondered. Must have gotten the keys from someone. It felt weird to him that she even stepped into his apartment, he cursed himself that he didn't at least clean up a little bit. Or not having a pig in his living room would have also been nice.

He looked at her face again and could just catch the frown that was placed between her carefully mended eyebrows. She stopped in front of the old elevator and looked at him with an serious expression. "These walls are paper thin… We need to be careful, we'll talk outside" she said in a hush-hush tone.

He got it. Super-secret stuff. Not for citizens of fabletown to see or hear. Got it completely. His sheepish half-awake thoughts kept on raveling in his head. Snow pressed the button of the elevator and they heard it coming up with lots of screeching noises. The elevator had never been new according to him, it always made the same fucking ear ringing sounds.

They got on the old piece of crap and both absent mindedly stared at the ground. His eyes followed the patterns of the floor until they heard the trusted sound that they had reached their destination.

Snow walked out into the lobby with a slight twitch in her finger that only Bigby would notice. Most of the things that Snow unknowingly did were only noticed by him, a thing he'd like to keep to himself as much as he could.

Snow kept walking on the checkered tile floor until she had reached the door and gave Bigby a nod to continue walking to a carefully placed security jacket that was lying on the steps to the lobby. He pushed the golden door handle and walked outside, frowning as he got closer. The cool nocturnal air hit him with all the smells it brought with it. He bent down in front of the piece of dark blue clothing and looked at Snow for a sign of approval to lift the jacket. She nodded lightly and Bigby's hand slowly grasped the jacket to lift it up.

His eyes grew wide as he witnessed in horror what was lying on the floor in front of him. The head of the girl that he met a couple hours before, was lying on the cold hard ground with her eyes and mouth open. He shook his head in disbelief.

"no.." he whispered as he was trying to comprehend the situation he was witnessing right now.

"Did you know her?" Snow asked as she descended the steps."She's… She's not a Mundy right? The question was spoken with care, her face looking at him with a worried expression.

"No.. she's a girl I saw before on the streets" Bigby said quietly. He watched the face of the dead girl with sad eyes, an end like this was never a pretty sight, especially for someone so young. When he saw her a couple of hours ago she had a sad undertone in the way she behaved, it flowed through her and stuck like bitter honey. Suicide was of course out of the picture and it was unlikely that the woodsman had done it. Who was it then?

"I feel like there is something you're not telling me.." remarked Snow. After a pause Bigby finally answered "The Woodsman. He attacked her and I stepped in. Then he tried to kill us both." He stated rather emotionlessly.

Snow looked at him with a shocked face "no.. You don't think that he..?" Bigby interrupted Snow in the middle of her question "I don't think anything yet, just gimme a second." he said to her. All directions pretty much pointed towards the bearded bastard, but from what he saw of him the last time, he wasn't quite capable of killing her right now. Let alone placing her head in front of the building without leaving parts of his brain on the ground.

Snow still looked in disbelief at the scene in front of her, her normally rosy cheeks a few shades paler. She felt sick and just wanted to crawl into her bed. But duty called, so her bed had to wait.

"it's just.. terrible" she said as she shook her head "it took me a second to realize what I was even looking at.."

"So.. who found her?" inquired Bigby.

Snow looked him in the eyes again. "I did" she said. "She was just like this, I didn't touch her. I grabbed Grimble's jacket to cover her with… then.. I came to get your right away" Snow looked away with a sorrowful expression.

Dammit, thought Bigby. He knew she was a grown woman but he still hoped it wouldn't be her to find the head. Protecting and watching out for her was a habit he had developed ever since their partnership as colleagues was formed. He liked Snow, maybe more then he wanted to admit, and she was one of the very few who didn't think that he was just an asshole. Well, at least she didn't think that completely he thought.

"Was there someone with you?" asked Bigby, regaining his serious tone .

"no." answered Snow as pushed back a few strands of shiny black hair behind her ear. Her eyes caught his again when she looked at him with her mouth slightly open, trying hesitantly to ask about the elephant in the room.

"Bigby.. Did one of us do this?" her clear blue eyes were staring at him in anticipation as she asked the question.

"There hasn't been a murder in Fabletown in… a long time." he said with a confident tone in his voice. "All the more reason we shouldn't panic until we know what's going on" said Snow calmly. The shit storm that this would cause would be unbelievable. The murder would be the talk of the day in fabletown.

A couple of unidentifiable characters walked by across from the building. Snow followed the pair with wearily, yet sharp eyes.

"Have a look around" Snow ordered "We don't have much time before people will start coming through here"

Snow walked past Bigby so she could see the girl's face, Bigby quickly closed her eyes to make the sight a bit less horrifying. When Bigby did this, the gentleness with how he closed her eyes surprised her. The big bad wolf was after all.. the big bad wolf. Bigby tended to fall back into his old violent habits whenever the opportunity came didn't like that, not one bit. But he was as stubborn as she was, a trait she loathed but as well appreciated in Bigby. The timing when he let it take control was the only thing he needed to work on, that and the endless abuse he used on the to-be-convicted understood where it came from all too well, but self-control was to be expected from someone who had to stop the very same thing amongst the fables. Nevertheless, he was a good friend of Snow, someone she could rely on whenever Fabletown went to hell.

Snow snapped out of the endless stream of thoughts about the man crouching in front of her when he started to investigate the severed head. Something was sticking out of the young girl's mouth, Bigby noticed this too and carefully retracted the piece of possible evidence.

It was a long piece of lavender-colored ribbon, what surprised her was the item left dangling at the end of the piece of fabric.

"It's… a ribbon" Bigby hesitantly remarked. Big fucking duh he thought, get your shit together wolf. He swallowed as he continued to investigate the slightly slimy accessory. The item that was dangling at the end of the ribbon was a golden ring with a symbol on it. "There is some kind of symbol here.." he said to snow.

Snow looked at the strange symbol on the signet ring and tried to match the inscription to one of her memories. She slightly tilted her head in dissatisfaction "hm.. I.. I don't recognize it" she said.

"Neither do I" said Bigby as he continued to look at the unidentified ring. He decided that he wouldn't get any further with it, for now at least. He looked at the head once more and noticed that it had an rather odd cut. Something sharp, or magically enhanced could have been used to make it look like this. He was certain.

Further he noticed that the position where she was placed was like the cut, odd. "She was placed here with some care" he remarked.

"what do you mean?" asked Snow. She had a nerve-wracking feeling that it wasn't going to be good.

"you can see that she wasn't just tossed here," he continued "she was deliberately placed here for us to find, some kind of warning."

Snow frowned at the answer. "what kind of monster would do this?". Her breath was slightly sped up, the anxiety of finding the severed head hadn't quite faded yet. And the theory she was hearing out of Bigby's mouth didn't exactly calm her down.

Bigby rubbed his tired eyes as he stood up, looking back at Snow who was standing behind him. She looked tense, her arms crossed and eyes averted looking in the distance.

"Ugh.." Snow looked like she could just pass out any minute from emotional exhaustion. "I… I'm sorry, this is all just so surreal." Snow's head was throbbing and she lightly touched her forehead.

"You sure that you're okay?" Bigby turned towards Snow and stood a little closer to her, looking at her suspiciously. Snow tended to keep things bottled up, god knows where she let them out. Probably at him when he did something wrong again.

"You can leave it to me if you want to" he said as he put his hand on her shoulder for a second.

Snow frowned internally at the contact, it came unexpected as she didn't know Bigby as the touchy-feely type. She thought that it was sort of sweet that he showed interest, but she could take care of herself. It was to be expected that she was okay, it was something that was included with her career.

"I'm fine Bigby, really. I just need a minute or two to let it all sink in that's it." Snow managed to show him a small tired smile. She knew that he didn't buy it, she saw it in the way that he looked at her. But he was smart enough to leave it alone, she was happy that she could keep her stupid thoughts for herself.

She composed herself and stood straight again, looking a bit more like her normal self. "So, what should we do next?" she asked.

Bigby pondered a few seconds about the question, but decided there wasn't that much left to do."we should just leave, there isn't anything for us to investigate anymore in here, since it is not the place where the murder occured." he said.

"Yes.. I guess you're right. But we… should move her before anyone shows up. We'll find out more at the business office, I'm sure that she's somewhere in the books" Snow added. Bigby nodded at her and looked at the girl's head again.

"Are you… really sure that it was a warning? How do you know?" Snow looked at him with questioning eyes, who would in his right mind put a severed head deliberately at the porch of a building? And why would the killer murder such a young girl?

"The position of the head," he answered "it's obvious that the killer wanted us to find it." That made sense, she thought. But why them? Did the killer get satisfaction from horrifying the fable community or was it because of the girl herself? Was it a statement? So many options were still open that it dazzled her. The only thing that could solve it was learning more about the mysterious girl and her involvements.

She looked at Bigby again "im going to have to tell Crane about this.. As long as king Cole is gone, he is mayor. He needs to know." She didn't really want to tell him, the only thing she could expect from it was a huge lecture and paperwork to boot. But what had to be done must be done, she thought with a sigh.

Bigby paused for a moment to think "I think that we should wait until we have more to tell him, or else he'll just be sticking his big nose in business where it doesn't belong. And the girl's dead, telling Crane about it isn't going to change anything." he spoke with a tone as if he was stating the was more because of that he hated Crane's guts, something about the guy felt off, and he couldn't quite place it.

She frowned once more at Bigby, and tried to deal with what he had just said. "It sounds… reasonable." she sighed. "but I still think that we should tell him, I'll think about it." Feeling of doubt soaked into her, she questioned the source of his intolerance of Crane in the case. She saw how those two got along, and the word awful couldnt even match it.

Bigby showed her a small appreciative smile."Thanks, I just don't want him to interfere yet." he said.

"But he's going to find it out anyway, you know that right?" She asked him with still one dark eyebrow questionably arched. "Yes sure, but I just want to keep him out of it for a bit longer" Bigby answered.

"Okay then.. Take the head back to dr. Swineheart for examination, and I'll meet you later at the business office." She quickly spun on her heels and turned around, walking back into the lobby and away from the horrid scenery. Bigby took a last glance at the face of the unfortunate girl and covered it with the security jacket once more, hoping to never see anything like it again.

**A/N** I hope you guys enjoyed, let me know what you think and don't forget to review! xx


	2. Wine and mirrors

**A/N** yoooo here's a new chapter for my fic, I hoped you enjoyed the last one. I checked this one a bit more thoroughly than the last one since I discovered some..err.. unflattering mistakes haha

This one is a bit longer than the last one, and a bit less fast paced than the previous one. Since it covers the argument with Snow and Crane, the investigation... yada yada, that sort of stuff. I hope you like it, and pleas esay what you think o.k.?

* * *

Bigby walked through the endless hallways, passing several apartments on his way to Crane's business office. He wanted to see Snow to continue the investigation of the gruesome murder they discovered.

Some nice fucking present they left thought Bigby cynically. His would still get a bitter taste in his mouth when he thought about what he saw. The eyes, the mouth, everything.. It made the hairs on the back of his neck rise. He had seen many crime scenes, sometimes even more gruesome than the one he saw yesterday. But this was different, this time he knew the victim. She was a young girl, probably had people she cared about, and to end up in prostitution… He mentally shook his head , so sad, so young, so everything. But sorrowful thoughts didn't solve anything, continuing his work did. Just keep on going was the way of life, moping around did nothing but break your spirit.

Bigby walked by a line of fables who probably had a couple or ten problems and complaints whom needed solving by Snow. Bigby was about to open the door of Crane's office as he heard an annoying voice he sadly enough recognized.

"What're you? Blind?" Bigby turned around to see the angry face of Grendel, one of the Trip-trap bar's asshole customers. A weird guy with a weird eye, he saw his fable form in the book of fables once, not a exactly a lady killer. Maybe in the literal sense but he couldn't imagine a girl who was charmed by the white monster.

"What, you don't see there's a line?" he continued with a snarky voice. Bigby sighed as he saw Grendel approaching him.

"I've been standing here for half an hour already, and you just get to walk in? Must be nice being the sheriff, doing whatever the fuck you like." Grendel's eyes shot fire as he spat out the hateful words.

"I work here." Said Bigby dryly with an annoyed expression.

"And what great work you do, sheriff." Bugby could almost taste the sarcasm on his tongue, he unconsciously cracked his left hand. If he didn't have this position Grendel would have a change of colour in that disgusting milky white eye. Black or red, whatever his mood would be. So far red with a combo of black seemed like a great option.

"Hmm.. That didn't feel very genuine…" he shot a humored glance at Grendel as he turned around to enter the office. Bigby could swear that he heard a word that sounded very much like fucker to him along with the screeching of the old door. He grinned slightly wolfish as he walked further into the enormous office.

As far as it could be called an office, it was more a huge dump with all kinds of curiosa from the homelands, with a desk right in the middle of the room. A genie lamp (genie not included), the antique clock from the seven goats.. Even Snow White's glass coffin was somewhere in here, much to her distress. Useless crap kept for, as they called it, the "emotional value". The only emotion that stuck to those items was the horror from their past. Snow didn't really lay in that coffin for the fun of it.

He heard an angry voice as he approached the two figures in the distance "..And now you tell me there's a KILLER on the lose?... with you two tittering behind my back…" The red-faced Ichabod Crane was angrily scolding Snow about something, he could guess along the lines what it was about. Annoying old fuck.

"—Because YOU are the one bringing his to me, miss Snow. The one who so simply "stumbled" upon this catastrophe on our very doorstep!" yelled Crane.

Bigby wanted to bring this to an end and walked faster towards the man with a nose the size of an toucan beak. Maybe ripping it off would silence him, it would at least raise his popularity with the ladies. Slightly.

"..The LAST thing I need with mayor Cole away is a hysteria, DO you understand me miss Snow?" snarked Crane.

"Yes, Of course I do." answered Snow, a hint of desperation could be heard in her voice.

"Don't interrupt me miss Snow!" yelled Crane ,silencing her defense.

"You asked me a question!" Snow voice was slightly raised, desperation was replaced with an bitter sounding frustration.

"Don't change the subject! You are to blame for this unpleasantness, miss Snow!"

"I brought you the news as soon as I could!" Snow said, her eyes were burning with anger from the enraging injustice.

Crane adjusted his glasses as he continued his speech "You are trusted to keep things running smoothly around here! This is a disaster!" All the yelling made Bigby's ears hurt, shutting Crane up would be a relief for everyone in the room. It was time to interrupt the bastard.

"Hey, if anyone in this room is to be blamed its me" said Bigby as he pointed his finger at himself.

"Oh, your role in this is duly noted! Yes, Let's talk about that mister Wolf!" fumed Crane. The deputy major continued rambling as he walked to the desk. "Sheriff, you are the one charged with the duty of protecting the people in fable town.. Your failure to do so cost someone their life, and the safety of the entire community!" Crane said as he sat down on the huge wooden chair behind his desk. He was still looking at Bigby as if he was some disgusting bug.

"Tell me that you at least have been doing something useful, are there any leads? Suspects?" Crane said as he was following snow out of the corners of his eyes, it slightly crept Bigby out and he didn't know why. Bigby decided that the question was rhetorical since he didn't want to share anything about the case with the son of a bitch.

Snow sat down in the chair across from the desk as Crane was still continuing his tirade. "Is there anything, anything at all that could prove that you're utterly useless?" Bigby's eyes looked with angry vigor at Crane because of the uncalled for remark.

Snow decided to answer before Bigby could release an series of evenly uncalled for remarks. "Bluebeard came to mind, it's his M.O. It's Shaky but-"

"Don't be absurd!" Crane interrupted "Bluebeard is out of the country as we speak, so don't bother of accusing of such an treacherous affair! If all your operating of is ancient history, we're all in more trouble than I imagined" he spat.

"You two need to get a hand of this situation quickly, and quietly. The last thing we need is every citizen of fable town knowing there is a killer amongst us. " he said as he pushed his chair closer and laced his fingers together in an authoritarian manner.

"Snow." Crane said it as if she were merely a dog. Bigby gritted his teeth and shot the human toucan a dirty look.

"Yes?... sir?" Snow said in a startled manner when the conversation suddenly turned towards her again. Sleep deprivation started to take a slight toll noticed Bigby.

"Call Vivian and say that I am coming in earlier for my massage." Massage? Bigby held back a vicious smirk as he heard what Crane said. And he was supposed to be slacking on the job huh, pretentious asshole.

"And did you buy that bottle of wine as I requested?" he inquired further. This shitshow was getting better and better as Crane continued.

Snow was thinking like wildfire right now, wondering where the bottle of wine was that she had purchased and left on Crane's desk. Crane rolled his eyes at her and let out a frustrated sigh. Snow already stood up to search for the missing item, but Crane stopped her in her tracks with further snide comments.

"Oh bother… Can't do anything right." He said as he pushed his chair back and walked towards the door. Bigby unconsciously adjusted his tie, he was tired of the constant moaning and nagging towards Snow. But it was not yet over as he heard Crane draw breath for another remark.

"Do your job sheriff.. or else we will find someone who CAN handle the job."

That's it , youre going down asshole thought Bigby. "You know what-"

"Stop it" Bigby was halted in his way to unemployment when Snow lightly grabbed his shoulder for a moment.

Crane looked back in annoyance as he stopped in his tracks. "We'll get on it right away, sir" she said with a fake smile. Crane didn't bother to answer and walked out of the office, giving the both of them a feeling of relief.

When the sound of the door clicking shut was heard, Bigby turned towards Snow. He wondered why she had stopped him, assholes needed to pay, especially when they were being unreasonable towards someone like Snow. She worked hard, harder than necessary and yet Crane kept treating her like dirt. It probably pissed him off more than it should but he couldn't care less.

"You would have just pissed him off more.." she said with a sympathetic look in her eyes. Bigby knew that she was right, but the injustice was cringing and Crane should have been put in his place. Which was supposed to be on the ground with a few knocked out teeth.

"Alright." Sighed Bigby with dissatisfaction, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked at the ground for a second.

"Thanks for trying to stick out for me though" she said as she smiled at him with appreciation. Bigby felt a warm sensation grow in his chest as she smiled, but before he could say anything Snow already continued.

"Well.. that could've gone better." She said as she put her hands on her hips, her face once again bearing a frown. "I should've listened to you and waited." Snow stared with a hint of regret in her eyes.

Bigby felt guilty that he didn't walk right away with Snow towards the office, maybe he could've stopped it all. But if she only had listened to him, he wouldn't have to feel this way. Sometimes he didn't understand her and her stubborn feeling of what the right thing to do was.

"Wasn't gonna say I told you so" Bigby showed her a slight smirk. The gleam in his eyes was saying what his mouth didn't, to annoyance of Snow.

"You don't have to say it" said Snow with a slight rolling of her eyes. "It would've been better to have more offers, get our ducks in a row you know." She concluded bitterly. Regret was stinging her heart a bit, it was mixed with the victory of Bigby.

Bigby's smirk remained on his face as he grabbed his pack of Huff 'n' Puffs to have a smoke. Snow interrupted him in lighting the first one "Oh—Crane doesn't like it when people smoke in.."

Bigby shot her a glance of amusement that she still wanted to protect the old bastards wishes even when he was gone. Snow picked that vibe of petty revenge up and smirked right back at him.

"Never mind, smoke away" she said. Maybe with a bit of luck he would choke in it she thought.

"So, wine to a massage?" Bigby asked with disbelief and sarcasm mixed in his voice.

Snow shrugged and pulled a face. "Probably a gift, the weird part is that he's actually being nice to someone" she said as she waved a thick gray cloud of awful smelling smoke away.

He told her once that he smoked that heavily to mask all the sensations that the city brought with it. She mostly thought that it was a disgusting habit, but she understood it all too well. Sometimes the city would get overwhelming for her too, and she didn't even have the same level of sense of smelling as he did.

"But the weird thing is, I know that I bought that damn bottle" she frowned. Suddenly they heard noises behind them, coming from the top of the oak armoire.

"Is he… Is he gone?" the noises and the voice came from Bufkin, the green flying monkey assistant of Crane.

"Yes Bufkin, thankfully" she said. Bufkind sighed in relief and landed on Crane's desk. Snow first felt sympathy for the little primate, until she noticed a very familiar bottle of wine in his hands.

She moved with angry footsteps towards Bufkin and looked at him accusingly. Bufkin was already trying to open the bottle of wine when Snow interrupted him in his raiding.

"Bufkin!" she said with the sternness of a schoolteacher. He looked up with an startled expression and stopped trying to open the bottle of alcohol.

"Oh.. Hello miss Snow" Bigby heard it in his voice that Bufkin knew what was coming.

"Really? Drinking this early? Where did you get that?" she said as she walked towards the desk and angrily put her hand on her hip.

"I.. ehm.. Got it from mister Ichabod's desk.." stammered Bufkin. Snow was on a roll today, the monkey had tough luck.

"Then, don't you think that it PROBABLY belongs to him?" she said as she quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Maybe.." answered Bufkin with small guilty voice.

Snow gave him a last-warning look as she took the bottle of wine, placing it somewhere his little grabby hands couldn't reach that easily. Bufkin seemed to have quickly recovered from Snow's scolding as he turned to Bigby.

"How are you today mister Bigby?" inquired Bufkin with a kind voice.

Bigby looked at the little monkey "I'm fine Bufkin, thanks for asking." Bufkin was one of the not so many fables who didn't automatically assume he probably felt like an asshole today, and didn't need any further asking about how his mood was going for him.

Bufkin gave him small smile at the unexpectedly kind answer. They looked behind them as they heard Snow's heel clicking on the tile floor again. She probably had found a good hiding spot for the wine.

"Bufkin, get the books." Snow ordered. "Which books?" replied Bufkin with a quirked eyebrow.

"The ones with all the fables in it.." Snow said with a fed-up voice. God, sometimes she wondered if he would be better off with his family members in the zoo. He certainly acted like it right now she thought.

"..I'm the not sure that was any more specific.." commented Bigby dryly. He smirked when he saw that Snow was shooting daggers at him.

"BRING THE FIRST THREE." Snow's face was in thunder mode now. Bigby couldn't help but keep that smirk plastered on his face, much to Snow's joy.

Bufkin flew away on search of the books. "He knows the ones I'm talking about." dictated Snow to further prove that she wasn't being unspecific at all.

"Meanwhile…" Snow continued "How about you go poke around here? See what the mirror can do? I have to reschedule Crane's appointment right now."

Bigby didn't really feel like screwing around with the annoying piece of glass. It was always bugging him 'about the rules of the mirror' and that he had to 'respect them' with some stupid ass rhyme. But hey, it was worth as shot. Every little step closer to solving this case was good enough for him.

He first looked at some weird and random items in the office before stopping in front of the huge mirror. After some arguing with the mirror about the rhyme and exchanging some rude remarks it turned out that there was.. nothing much to see about the girl. Maybe it was because he didn't actually know her name, maybe not. If they could find her in the books, who knows what sort of information they could find out about her?

Meanwhile he heard a loud thud behind him, he turned around to see Bufkin trying to get the fallen books on the desk. Snow quickly finished her phone call and walked towards the books on the table.

They quickly discovered a girl in the illustration of the first book with a donkey skin robe. She was wearing the exact same ring as they had found in the dead girl's her mouth earlier. They looked up the symbol in another book and they discovered it was from Allerleirau, or donkey skin fairytale. Donkey skin turned out to be called Faith these days, and her story was just as sad as her ending. Her father promised to his dying wife to only marry someone who could match her beauty. Faith seemed to be the only suitable candidate.

Bigby felt disgusted as he read the story, sometimes he thought it was better that they had moved to the mundane world. Even though he could barely stand the city and he missed the forests, people at least couldn't marry their own daughters here. But they finally got the girl's name, and that was all that mattered for now he thought.

"Should I… mark it miss Snow?" Bufkin asked. The atmosphere had suddenly turned grim from hearing the tale behind the murdered girl.

"Yes, please do." Snow answered, glancing at Faith's picture once more. Bufkin quickly stamped the word 'deceased' in big red letters on the page.

"And what was her husband's name?" Snow asked.

"Hmm.. Lawrence, prince Lawrence." stated Bufkin.

Prince Lawrence didn't seem to ring a bell with Bigby, maybe he saw him once or twice but he couldn't imagine the face of the man. He didn't look forward to breaking the new to the poor guy that much.

"So…" Snow began "we know that her name's Faith, her husband is Prince Lawrence, I mean that's more then-"

Snow got cut off by Bigby. "Her name WAS Faith." He said. Snow looked at him with sad eyes "Yeah.." she emitted.

Bigby ran his hand across his face and walked towards Snow. "We should talk to the husband." Bigby insisted.

Snow shot a questionable look at him. "You think that he did it?" she asked him.

"Well, nothing would surprise me at this point. We can't rule him out." Grumbled Bigby.

Bigby decided to have a talk with the mirror again about the newly acquired information. Although that didn't really get him any further either, Faith's location was sealed by some form of powerful magic to Bigby's annoyance. The magic mirror said the same line as Faith had done, 'my lips are sealed'. Faith's father was dead so they could rule him out, it wasn't until he asked about prince Lawrence that they finally got somewhere. He could see the prince sitting in his chair in a dim-lit room, a dagger lying by his feet. He should definitely go investigate the prince..

"Hey Snow, do you know where Prince Lawrence lives?" he shouted across the room.

Snow looked up from the thick book she was reading in. "Well, if he's a prince he should probably have been relocated in the Bronx. Yellow building, red frames. " assumed Snow as she walked towards Bigby. "It has red frames" responded Bigby.

"Yep, that's the one." Acknowledged Snow. "I can get us there" She said as she smiled softly.

They were about to leave the gloomy office when the phone suddenly rang. "Sorry, I'll have to get that" excused Snow. She hurriedly walked over to the phone and picked it up with the same old welcome drill.

"Yes? Oh- Yes he is here, hold on." Snow pointed the horn of the phone towards Bigby with a confused expression. " It's for you Bigby" she stated.

Bigby grabbed the horn out of Snow's small hands and put it against his ear. "Hello?" he said warily.

"Bigby! It's me. Toad. You there?" Toad asked. What would Toad want now?

"What do you want, Toad?" questioned Bigby with a temper in his voice. He didn't exactly have time for this.

Toad was blabbering all sorts of nonsense, but he could make out that something was going on in the old apartment where Bigby fought Woody. And not something good, he judged by the tone in Toad's voice. Toad suddenly hung up too, before he could ask any questions. It sounded kinda fishy, but he felt that he needed to catch the guy who was making such a ruckus in the apartment.

"what's the matter with Toad?" asked Snow with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know.. I couldn't really tell but.. he could be in trouble. And we should go there anyway to search the apartment." said Bigby. But Prince Lawrence also needed to be checked out pronto, he clearly saw a dagger lying on the floor when he looked in the mirror, god knows what he could do or had done with the item. But which one had the highest priority?

Bigby and Snow quickly left the building, on their way to what they hoped would not be another crimescene…

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**A/N** Is that... a cliffhanger? Sort of? I tried to push some "excitement" in the end since it was a little bit of torture to write, it was so slow paced arghh. Stay tuned for the next chapter, I hope you guys liked it and let me know what you think x


	3. Clues and lies

**A/N** This one is a bit longer, I start to get sucked up in writing a soon as I'm busy haha

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The cab's tires screeched as it stopped in front of Toad's apartment complex, it was a hot summer morning. But the confined space they were sitting in had a lack of air conditioning, to Snow's joy. Snow looked at the towering building as Bigby quickly paid the cab fare to the chagrin driver. Driving in a yellow can on wheels in the summer was never soothing for your mood, but the guy could at least not look at them like they were some trash he had to dump.

They got out of the overheated vehicle as quickly as they could, finally drawing a breath of fresh air, stepping on the hot sidewalk. Snow stretched out her tired limbs as Bigby put a cigarette between his lips and lit it with a swift movement. He always did it with some kind of flair that amazed her a bit, but it was typical for him to be only elegant with such sort of things. Snow looked at the shabby apartment complex and noticed the unavoidable damage that probably had something to do with Bigby and his fight with the woodsman.

A huge hole was now where a window used to be joined to the wall. At least they don't need air conditioning now, Snow thought with an sarcastic smirk.

"You guys made a real mess, Bigby.. How did you even manage to do this?" Snow asked him with an raised eyebrow.

She really was curious, he had explained a bit of what had preceded in the cab but this big of a mess... She couldn't make her mind up if she should have to be impressed or incredibly furious. The damage repair costs were something she would have to cover, paired with lots of arguing with Crane and paperwork...

"I said that he could either sit it out quietly or wait outside… he picked the last option." Bigby answered like it was the most normal thing he had done today. Cup of coffee, had a cigarette, sent myself flying out of the window with a criminal…

"And the door wasn't a valid option?" Snow said with sarcasm drenched in her voice. Bigby scoffed at the answer and took another drag of his cigarette. The man was as stubborn as a mule.

"I have to admit, it looks even worse in the day." Said Bigby as he threw his cigarette on the ground and put it out with the heel of his shoe.

They crossed the quiet street to approach the building when Bigby thought he saw movement in the gaping hole.

"Is someone up there?" Snow asked as she also looked at the unknown figure.

Bigby squinted his eyes at the guy. It sure as hell wasn't Toad or Woody, too fat to be the amphibian and too short to be the annoying woodchopper. He was starting to get a hunch who the unwelcome guest was.

"HEY!" Bigby barked at the intruder. He saw that the unknown person was panicking now, he knew that he was discovered. An unwelcome surprise that Bigby happily delivered. The guy quickly stepped away from the hole. Bigby quietly cursed as he saw the figure hurriedly leaving.

"Snow, wait here!" Bigby yelled as he quickly ran towards the building. Snow crossed her arms in concern as Bigby hurriedly ran up the old creaking steps of the stairs.

Bigby got to the apartment and alertly looked around in the disheveled room. There was enough crap lying around but no suspicious person to be seen. He scratched his neck in confusion and walked to the hole facing the streets. Snow stared at him with a confused look on her face, signing with her hands where the hell the guy was. Snow now also walked towards the old building and entered, but she also didn't see any fleeing suspects.

Bigby caught a two voices being in a heated argument as he was walking back towards the empty hallway facing the apartment.

"I'm sorry!" cried an seemingly young voice in the distance.

"That's enough already! Shut it!" a familiar voice with an thick cockney accent thundered.

Bigby walked downstairs and saw Snow standing in front of one of the doors of the apartments, she looked at him with alarmed and wary eyes. That must be where all the shouting came from. Bigby stepped towards the door and stood next to Snow, listening to the ruckus inside.

"Is that his son?" Snow asked as she cocked her head in concern.

"Toad's? Probably.." Bigby answered quietly. One thing that he didn't like was yelling at innocent children. Snow probably picked this up and put her hand on his chest as he wanted to proceed into the apartment. She locked eyes with him and he saw her calm stare.

"Be nice in there okay?" she said in a quite tone.

"I'm always nice" smirked Bigby as he took her hand in his and placed it at her side again. Snow eyed the action for a moment and then focused on Bigby again.

"No thrashing up the place near the kid, I mean it." Ordered Snow with an penetrative stare, the ice queen had once returned. Bigby simply dismissed this as he opened the door, he still could feel where Snow's hand had been.

He looked inside the apartment and saw that it had just as much class as the building itself had. He saw mismatching furniture and wallpaper that looked like it could have been in his own apartment.

It turned out to be indeed Toad who was heaving a heated argument with his tiny son. Toad quickly lifted his head in the direction where Bigby entered the apartment with Snow, looking at them nervously as they stood in the small space.

"Bigby! …and miss White, you surely didn't come all this way for old me now did ya?" Toad said as he quickly stood in front of his son and rubbed his neck.

"Sorry Bigby, It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but I actually thought there was someone else in Woody's place." He stated in a nervous manner. The sentence reeked of lies, but he let Toad continue his little talk.

"There was nothing when I checked—nothin' but a leaky old drain pipe. Imagination probably has gotten the best of me.. There wasn't though, so there's nothing left to worry about. You know, false alarm" Toad's eyes seemed to scream LEAVE! as he looked at the sheriff, but the short fable had shit luck today.

"I saw someone in Woody's apartment Toad, what're you trying to cover up?" Bigby demanded.

"Oh is that right?" Toad said "You still have a year or two left in those ears of your dad's don't you, haven't completely gone to the dogs, eh?" He continued in snarky tone. Bigby didn't react to the unrelated remark, smoke veils weren't going to work.

Snow looked at the son of the distressed fable and saw that he was wiping hot tears of his puffy cheeks. She bowed down in front of the small child and looked at him in concern.

"Are you alright?" she worriedly inquired.

Toad quickly jumped in before the little fable could speak for himself.

"Oh he's quite alright miss Snow, just stung his little toe. Better swimmer than walker, just as his dad." He said with a nod towards his sniffling son. Snow didn't trust the answer and continued to look warily at Toad junior.

Snow got up and turned towards Bigby."Wanna.." she curtly directioned with her head towards the living room, prodding him to go investigate further.

Toad once again started talking before someone could say what they wanted to.

"Guess you'll be taking off right now, no need to stick around here any longer.. I mean I'm sorry you came all the way for nothin'" Toad symphatized hurriedly.

Bigby didn't buy the bullshit and gave one of his famous intense looks to Toad

"Someone was in your building Toad, this is for your own safety. You called us, remember?" Bigby was tired of Toad trying to lose them, something was off and he wanted to know what is was, now.

Toad tried yet again to argue about them staying in the dirty building.

"Yeah, yeah I know mate, and I appreciate it but-"

"It's fine Toad, relax. We'll be out of here in a minute. We just wanna check things out first" Bigby interrupted impatiently. God would Toad ever just shut his trap?

"Alright, Alright.. I just don't want to waste your time that's all. Have a cup of tea if you like" Toad sighed when he finally gave in, his face had a scowl on it as he walked into the living room.

Snow knelt down in front of Toad junior again, looking at him with kind eyes.

"Pfft, grown-ups am I right?" she smiled at the young lad. Toad junior kept staring at his fidgeting hands.

"Uhh…." Was the only thing the boy let out. Probably a bit shy or still quite from what had just preceded, whatever that was. Maybe the boy could tell them something.

But Snow wasn't the kind of woman to stop trying, talking to him about his interests and such might help him open up a bit more towards her.

"Hey you know, Flycatcher said you had a pretty awesome insect collection.. I'd really love to see it, is it in your room?" Snow asked with a warm tone in her voice.

Finally the small fable looked her in the eyes for second.

"It.. it has a weevil." He mumbled shyly.

"Cool..!" Snow smiled. The boy surprisingly beamed in return and giddily walked in front of her, leading her towards his room with his treasured collection.

Bigby looked in amusement as Snow followed Toad junior into his room, she could be surprisingly gentle and patient with people if she wanted to. He vaguely could remember a Snow who was like that all the time, way back, before her divorce with that bastard prince Charming. After that she grew cold towards most people, probably to protect herself from getting in a situation like that again. Bigby saw through that, he knew what she was like, after all those years he knew her almost better than he did himself.

Bigby snapped out of his thoughts and started scanning the hallway that led to the living room first. He noticed an extremely ugly smashed lamp on floor. He crouched down in front of the broken object and looked at Toad for a possible explanation.

"How'd this happen?" asked Bigby promptly.

Toad's face turned foul as he heard the question roll from Bigby's mouth.

"Oh fucking hell, damn thing must've fallen from the table.." Toad fumed.

"Uh-huh, it just fell of the table.." remarked Bigby dryly as he gestured with his hand towards the lamp. It didn't fit, the power sockets were all taken by other electronic devices. None of them hinting that the lamp was yanked out of one of them when it fell. It was thrown, he was so certain of that he would swallow a silver bullet if he was wrong.

Bigby started investigating further in the living room, where he noticed right away that there were several spatters of blood on the wall. He looked at Toad with an cocked eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. He could see Toad break into cold sweat as he tried to make up another excuse.

"Oh that? I cut my finger, ran around like a tit to get it bandaged." Toad exclaimed nervously.

Bigby looked at Toad's hands and noticed neither a cut nor a bandage to cover up the wound. Toad saw Bigby looking at his hands and quickly started fidgeting with them.

"It healed like a madman, I guess it's one of the advantages of being a fable… or a frog" Toad reasoned with a light tremor in his voice.

Bigby just let that excuse for what it was and continued looking around in the small room. He examined several items until he got to the window. He lifted it and the warm air from outside hit him. Bigby looked at the windowsill and noticed to his astonishment that there were marks of a pair of hands on them. Human hands.

"What's it now? If it's blood you know what happened, I-" began Toad

"No, there are marks on the window sill, what's that about?" Bigby interrupted as he turned to Toad again.

"Oh for no good reason." Toad said. Bigby sighed, did the asshole really think that that would make a good answer and that he would leave it as it was? Bigby glared at Toad, suggesting him to continue and Toad loudly gulped.

"Well… Erm, yesterday night when I'd come out, I was in a downright tizzy mate- I forgot me keys and all, and I had to climb to the bloody window." Toad smirked as if he was innocence himself.

"Really." Stated Bigby, the distrust could be heard in his voice from miles away.

"I nearly scared junior to dead.." Toad lamely finished as Bigby was giving him once again the stare of death.

Bigby noticed something lying on the floor out of the corner of his eyes, and he quickly got closer to examine the foreign object.

It turned out to be a poker for in the fireplace, this one was only peculiarly covered with blood. Bigby shot another accusing look at Toad and he started to mutter all sorts of excuses and weak bullshit until Bigby had enough of it.

"Toad this apartment is a mess, all the signs indicate that there has been a fight. And your just making it worse for yourself the longer you keep up the act." He spoke accusingly.

Toad's eyes grew wide in panic, making them look even more huge and bulging than they already were.

"Bigby, I'm not bullshitting you. HONEST." His eyes betrayed his panic, he knew that he was done for.

"I know something's off, Toad. And you know that I can't leave until I know what it is. So can we please skip to the end of the page before I get mean?" said Bigby with a penetrative stare.

"I don't know what you want Bigby, there's nothing going on!" reasoned Toad

Bigby sighed as he rubbed his temple, he was getting sick and tired of all the excuses. He shot a last look at Toad and decided to go check on Snow. Intimidating the bastard could happen later on. Bigby walked over to the door and as he opened it he could hear Snow and junior talk excitedly about all the nasty little critters on this fine earth.

Snow looked up to see Bigby standing in the doorway and walked over to the irritated man.

"Did you get anything?" Snow asked.

"Nah, Toad is hiding something.. He won't say what it is though. Did the boy say anything yet?" Bigby inquired.

Snow shook her head. "No nothing really. He was really upset, though, earlier.. He won't say why. Something's going on I just know it." She sighed.

"There probably is.. stay with the kid until I figure out what." Bigby insisted. Snow nodded at him in agreement and closed the door again.

Bigby continued searching the apartment for clues, feeling the judging stare of Toad burning in his back. He quickly noticed that the lock of the door was busted. A bit odd, to say the least. Bigby made a remark about this and Toad started hanging him on story about that the whole building had rotten wood, that that was just something that had been like that for weeks.

"Then why did you get in by the window when you got back from the bar if the lock was busted?" Bigby smugly asked. Got you motherfucker.

But Toad still wasn't out of excuses. "Fuckin' hell mate, in the state that I was in I didn't have me head, that's all it was. I simply fuckin' forgot that the lock was busted. And it's embarrassing with you bringing all this shit up, so quit it already with all the third degree and that." Toad said with visible annoyance.

"Bigby I'm really, really sorry that I called, but would you please, please bugger of? No one fought anyone all right?" said Toad with desperation in his eyes.

"Toad.." Bigby started with frustration pent up in his voice "These.. stories don't make any sense. You didn't cut yourself on the poker. You didn't forget your keys. You didn't bump the lamp of the table. Now you wanna tell me what's going on? Bigby reasoned with clear irritation as he put his hands on his hips.

"She doesn't think much of me, I think.." Junior entered the room with Snow again. "Oh I wouldn't necessarily say that" Snow said to the little boy.

"Any progress?" Snow asked Bigby. Bigby shook his head as he eyed Toad again, who turned around to give his son a quick hug.

Snow face bore a shocked expression as she saw the fable's back.

"Mr. Toad… You're bleeding!" she exclaimed. Toad quickly turned around and touched his neck, his fingertips red from the thick liquid. He looked wide-eyed at Bigby, not knowing what to say now for once.

"Toad.. Take of the hat" Bigby demanded. Toad gave him a somber look as he took of the shabby hat and turned around, revealing a heavily bleeding wound at the back of his head. Now he couldn't make up any more excuses, finally.

Toad sat down on the crate at his left as he finally started to speak the truth.

"It was that damn butcher, a Tweedle. Dee or Dum. You gotta strip 'em down to their Johnnies before you can't tell which is which." Groaned Toad.

Snow bent down next Toad and held a handkerchief on the painful wound, which Toad thankfully accepted before he continued.

"He just barged in, screaming about something that the woodsman had, or thought he had.. I don't know. He started tearing up the place and beat me up. I tried to go out via the window, but the bastard pulled me back in" Toad confessed.

"what did he want from you?" questioned Bigby.

"I don't know.." mumbled Toad "I wanted to tell you- I really did. But he said that if word ever got back to him, that if you knew or miss White.. he'd come back and kill my boy.." Toads eyes were overflowing with desperation as he told Bigby what happened.

"I tried giving him the girl's coat but he wouldn't take it." Toad added.

"The girl's coat?" Bigby said as he cocked an eyebrow at the fable. Junior jumped in before Toad could answer.

"Dad borrow things from people." Junior said before he realized that it probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.

"Err.. Sometimes?" he said as he tried to save his dad from further judgement.

"Well, we will be taking the coat now, just in case of that she had next of kin, family, anyone..." Said Snow.

"alright, alright.. Fetch 'em the fur will ya boy?" said Toad with a pained look in his eyes to his lad.

"Fine piece of dress it is.." he said with a defeated voice.

Snow walked over to the fireplace to help Junior get the donkey skin mantle out of the chimney, it got out of the chimney with so much sooth that it made the both of them cough in disgust.

"Though I wouldn't wear it outside." Toad remarked smugly.

Snow laid the odd piece of clothing on the couch when something caught Bigby's eye.

"Wait Snow.." He walk the couch and bent over to grab a letter that was tucked safely into the mantle.

"It's addressed to prince Lawrence.." Snow acknowledged "What do you want to do with it Bigby?"

"Nah, it doesn't seem right to open up another man's mail." Bigby said as he glanced at the letter again. "Let's try and give it to him." he added.

Snow nodded in agreement when Toad decided it was time for him to speak again.

"Well, that covers it, doesn't it? I'd see you out but I'm afraid that I'm drippin' more blood around the place." He snarked.

Bigby walked to the door of the tiny apartment as Snow stopped by Junior to say her goodbyes. The little kid seemed to like Snow a whole lot.

They closed the door and walked until they stepped outside into the bright summer sun. Bigby quickly lit a cigarette, the interrogation in the tiny apartment had drained a huge chunk of his energy.

"So, does it always go that smoothly?" Snow asked Bigby with a smirk on her face.

"Not that often.."Bigby smirked right back at her in amusement, taking another drag of the cigarette.

"I guess it's only when you have a talented assistant tagging along with you." Snow looked at him with a playful gleam in her eyes, taunting him.

Bigby laughed as he heard her say it, he locked eyes with her, staring in them until his smile slowly faded. Snow looked back at him and felt the mood suddenly change. When the hell did this happen?

She averted her eyes in a coy manner, being coy was something very, very unlike her. Bigby stirred uncomfortably as he saw that she was feeling as awkward as him. Snow quickly cleared her throat and started to talk about the case again.

"So, the prince's now?" she proposed with a soft voice, finally looking him in the eyes again

"Lawrence's, yeah. He's our best lead right now." Bigby said as he slightly raised his hand with the cigarette in agreement.

"Our only lead really.." Snow mumbled. She started walking to the edge of the sidewalk, waiting for a cab. Bigby watched her moveas he took a last drag of his cigarette and exhaled the smoke.

"Well.. If you put it that way.." Bigby scoffed. He dropped the cigarette on the ground and put it out with his heel, following Snow.

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**A/N **I hope you also enjoyed this chapter even though I didnt really add that much of myself this time. I'll try to change this in future chapters, but this fic is still me experimenting with writing for the first time so please bear with it haha

And thankyou very much for the support, reviews keep me going so keep 'em coming! x


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